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Police Appear to Shoot 20 Times at Unarmed Man

Video footage released by Sacramento police shows officers shoot at an unarmed man, who died at the scene. Police previously said they fired 20 shots. (Published Thursday, March 22, 2018)

Two officers yelled for a suspect to show his hands then shouted "gun, gun, gun" moments before fatally shooting the man who turned out to be unarmed, audio from body camera footage released by Sacramento police shows.

Footage from the body cameras and an overhead helicopter does not clearly depict what the man, who was only holding a cellphone, was doing in the moments before the police fired on Sunday night. The shooting happened in the backyard of the man's grandparents' home, where he was staying. The police did not find a gun at the scene.

The Sacramento Police Department said the man, who was black, was seen breaking into at least three vehicles and later into a neighbor's home. The break-ins were first reported by a 911 call also released by the police.

The police said deputies in the helicopter saw the man break a neighbor's sliding glass door before jumping a fence. The helicopter video does not show the alleged break-in. It picks up as the man is running through a backyard and climbing over a fence into a neighboring property. It shows him looking into a truck in the driveway.

The helicopter, flying over the house, then loses sight of the man. It briefly shows him in the backyard as the police are running up the driveway along the side of the house.

"Show me your hands — gun!" one officer yells, according to the body camera footage released Wednesday. It is dark outside and a flashlight from one body camera briefly shows the backyard, but the man is not visible. "Gun, gun, gun," one of the officers yells before they begin shooting.

The helicopter footage shows the man collapsing as they shoot. It's unclear from the helicopter and body camera video exactly how many shots were fired. Police previously said the officers fired 20 shots.

As several officers approach, the man is seen lying face down with an iPhone near his head. He's handcuffed and the officers discuss performing CPR.

The officers who fired are taken to the street, where someone says "Hey mute" and the audio cuts out. The video continues without sound for about two minutes as the officers talk.

"Based on the videos alone, I cannot second guess the split-second decisions of our officers and I'm not going to do that," Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. "The investigation must be completed. We need more information in addition to the video before we can render any final conclusions."

Steinberg said appropriate questions have been raised about the protocols for using force and rendering emergency aid during police shootings and they must be answered in the investigation.

Authorities have not released the man's name but a woman who said she was his fiancee identified him as Stephon Alonzo Clark, 22, the father of her two sons, ages 1 and 3. The shooting has ignited questions by relatives, activists and others after it turned out he was holding only a cellphone.

"We're mourning right now and so we need our time to mourn," Salena Manni, said Wednesday as the family gathered in his grandparents' home.

"He was at the wrong place at the wrong time in his own backyard?" Clark's grandmother, Sequita Thompson, told The Sacramento Bee. "C'mon now, they didn't have to do that."

The department could not say how many times Clark was hit, and the coroner's office was not releasing information until his relatives were notified. The department said the two officers have been with Sacramento police for two and four years, but each has four years' previous experience with other law enforcement agencies. Both are on paid administrative leave.

Clark routinely helped care for his grandparents at their home in south Sacramento, his cousin, Sonia Lewis, told Capitol Public Radio.

Black Lives Matter Sacramento called it a police murder and demanded answers. City Councilman Larry Carr decried the loss of life and said police must provide timely information.

The NAACP also tweeted about the shooting on Wednesday saying: "How many more mistakes have to happen before they get it right? Shot to death in your own backyard? Sleep peacefully #StephanClark his life mattered. Being armed with only a cell phone can cause you to lose your life."